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Global Warming and Climate Change - links to pages on this site
Drought Watch
See also : Eden Watch
The first set of photos below show the 'greenness, and the drought conditions, as it was last summer, and the situation as it exists currently...
Last summer, this easter, and September 2002
In regards to the drought, the situation has improved in the north west rainforests, and gotten worse elsewhere, with a band up the middle of the continent which has been subjected to flooding rather than drought. The flooding is indicated by Greens on the Palmer long term drought map, linked to by the graphic below (the flooding was anamolous in that it continued all winter, when you expect not flooding but rather freezing. The radar map for May 17th, indicates further extremely heavy rain in these areas, and there are more flood warnings posted, the pattern continuing into the late spring. This area includes 'the corn belt' etc and thus there are concerns about planting because the ground is so soggy. As well mosquitoes thrive in such soggy conditions, and thus there are concerns about the spread of the West Nile Virus which is carried by mosquitoes and is present in these regions this spring...
May 11th, 2002 Palmer Long Term Drought Map, and for September 7th, 2002
The greenness photos for last summer and this Easter...
2001/Spring 2002/September 2002
The graph below for March, 2002, links to the Drought Watch site...
http://drought.unl.edu/impacts/us/usimpact.htm
The map below links to the Canadian Agriculture drought watch site...
http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/drought/pasturec_e.htm
Real Time River Flow page
Streamflow page
Previous pages on the same subject ...
The drought began in the mountains and then began spreading ... Note that in the humidity graphics on this page, low humidity is in blue, and high humidity is in red. This year the map is reversed, and high humidity is in blue, which is more intuitive, while low humidity is in red, also more intuitive. The same pattern of low humidity is once again taking shape over the mountains this spring, and as the summer heat begins the problem will once again become severe...
Summer is over, harvest is past, and we are not saved...A report from last summer
Dustbowl conditions return as dust storm blankets Western city May 21, 2002
Snap shots of one of these dust storms
Also see the page Earthquake Watch ...
According to an AP wire story : Western Kansas Farmers Culling Cattle Herds, Abandoning Wheat Acres
By Roxana Hegeman Associated Press Writer
Published: May 13, 2002
SYRACUSE, Kan. (AP) -
The (winter wheat) plants should be knee-high and so thick he can't see the ground. But these barely outstrip the top of his dusty boots as he strides through the sickly stand. Large brown patches of dirt show where plants died and blew away, or seed never sprouted at all....As Keller waits, he scratches a long furrow in the loose soil with his boot before hitting hardpan. Keller unsheathes a pair of pliers and inserts the handle in a half-inch fissure, prying loose clods of dirt as hard as rock.
Farther down the field, he stops and easily pulls out a wheat plant with two fingers. Then another. And another.
In far western Kansas, where no substantial rain has fallen since August, dry conditions are approaching Dust Bowl levels. The region is so parched that even some irrigated fields have been lost.
The drought is affecting cattlemen, too, as pastures become so dry that they can't turn their livestock out.
At the local auction yard, owner Steve Schneider is having a busy day with his dairy cattle auction and bracing for a beef auction the next day expected to be busier than normal. The number of cattle running through his sales rings are up 20 to 30 percent over a year ago.
"Some are liquidating their herds, some are culling a few and trying to hold on," he says. "But the dry feed is running out."
A note of my own : In Western Canada the situation is just as bad. The River running through my city consists of mud islands with water puddles, and the fields are parched and yellowish brown. The low river conditions were caused by a winter drought in the Rockies. I watched over the weekend as some men walked through a field with clouds of dust being raised by each footfall...
Last year the New Moon came hours after the Eden Wing appeared on the Sahara (April 22, 2001), and so the following verses seemed appropriate...
Psalm 81
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, and again at the full moon, on our feast day.
"I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! If you would but listen to me!
There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am YAHWEH your God.
But my people did not listen to my voice; they would have nothing to do with me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels."
Psalm 78:15
YAHWEH cleft rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
and made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
Yet they sinned still more against God, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
Psalm 107:32
For rivers turn into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground,
a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
YAHWEH turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.
And there the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in;
they sow fields, and plant vineyards, and get a fruitful yield.
Under blessing they multiply greatly;
When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,
YAHWEH pours contempt upon rulers and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
but raises up the needy out of affliction, and makes their families like flocks.
The upright see it and are glad; and all wickedness stops its mouth.
Psalm 68:6
Sing to God, sing praises; lift up a song to God who rides upon the clouds; whose name is YAHWEH, exult before God!
God gives the desolate a home to dwell in; and leads out the prisoners to prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a parched and ruined land.
O God, when thou didst go forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, Selah
the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, at the presence of God; yon Sinai quaked at the presence of God.
Rain in abundance, O God, thou didst shed abroad; thou didst restore thy heritage as it languished;
thy flock found a dwelling in it; in thy goodness, O God, thou didst provide for the needy.
YAHWEH gives the command; great is the host of those who bore the tidings:
"The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee!" The women at home divide the spoil,
though they stay among the sheepfolds—the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with green gold.
Psalm 84:6
As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Eden.
Global Warming and Climate Change - links to pages on this site
See also : Eden Watch
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